Every athlete has felt nervous before a competition. You have a competition in one week. You get anxious. Your coach or workout plan tells you it’s time to reduce the work volume and intensity, but every day you feel as though you’re just losing strength by not...

”Knowing” technique doesn’t give you good technique. Repeating the correct movements will improve technique. Because of the complexity of the snatch and the clean, we need to isolate specific parts of the lifts to learn and improve them. Doing pulls from stairs...

The southern part of the middle-of-nowhere Russia, around the Caucus Mountains, produces an incredibly large amount of world champion wrestlers, boxers, Sambo fighters and weightlifters. Some people say it’s because of the fresh water, air and food – because of...

I’ve trained in Nike, Adidas and Inov-8 weightlifting shoes – and each had its advantages and disadvantages. The Adidas are best for me because they don’t restrict my foot movement. I don’t feel any resistance or drag when my feet move out for the catch of the snatch,...

One important concept that I didn’t grasp when I first started lifting is that we have a lot of muscles in our bodies, and that every one of them should be used to lift the bar, not just the muscles of the legs, glutes and lower back. When I watched the biggest...